Guard buries Tigers from long range

STOCKTON - Pacific will see a lot more of Santa Clara after the Tigers join the West Coast Conference next season.

Bob Highfill

STOCKTON - Pacific will see a lot more of Santa Clara after the Tigers join the West Coast Conference next season.

Barring anything unforeseen, they won't have to face Broncos guard Kevin Foster ever again. And for Pacific, that's good news.

The senior guard from Katy, Texas, scored 28 of his game-high 31 points in the second half, including 11 in a row for his team during a critical stretch late in the game, to give Santa Clara a 75-71 win over the Tigers in front of 1,879 on Saturday at Spanos Center.

Foster entered the game averaging 18.5 points in four previous meetings against Pacific.

"He's hard to play like that, when he has the green light anytime, anywhere to shoot the ball," said Pacific guard Rodrigo De Souza, whose defensive assignment in his 19 minutes on the court was to guard Santa Clara's all-time leading scorer (1,903 points). "He's a great player. When you have the freedom to shoot the ball, it's kind of hard because he catches it and shoots it, and he makes tough shots."

De Souza and Colin Beatty alternated defending Foster and held him to three points on 1-of-8 shooting from the floor, including 0 for 4 from 3-point range in the first half. But the Broncos (8-2) never stopped setting screens and spacing the court so Foster could get open. Finally, he got hot, especially when it counted most.

Pacific (5-5) led 63-60 with 2:50 remaining in a hard-fought contest when Foster made a baseline 3-pointer off a screen with De Souza defending him. Lorenzo McCloud missed on the Tigers' ensuing two possessions, and Foster sank another 3-pointer on a quick catch-and-release with De Souza guarding him to give Santa Clara a 66-63 lead. Sama Taku made a 3-pointer from the corner for the Tigers to tie it 66-66, and Santa Clara called a timeout with 1:16 left. Pacific came out in a zone defense and again, Foster found open space behind a screen and made another 3-pointer, making it 69-66 with 54 seconds left.

"He had just hit two 3s against our man (defense)," Tigers coach Bob Thomason said about coming out of the timeout in a zone.

Santa Clara used another timeout after Foster's 3. Taku drove to the basket but had his shot swatted out of bounds by Broncos guard Evan Roque-more. Then, Travis Fulton made a critical turnover when Foster grabbed his pass and drove for a uncontested layup to give the Broncos a 71-66 lead with 26.7 seconds left.

"He's our best offensive player, and the biggest play he made was a defensive play to make it a two-possession game," Santa Clara coach Kerry Keating said.

Neither team led by more than seven points, and there were 13 lead changes and 12 ties. The Broncos had 16 offensive rebounds, which led to a 65-51 discrepancy in field-goal attempts. The volume of shots the Broncos took softened the effect of their 37 percent shooting from the floor.

"We're good enough to win close games, but you have to make plays, and they did," Thomason said. "These are all things we're learning."

Taku led his team with 23 points, the most the junior transfer from Santa Rosa Junior College has scored as a Tiger.

Pacific has a rematch with future WCC foe Saint Mary's at 7 p.m. Wednesday in Moraga. The Tigers beat the Gaels 76-66 on Nov. 23 at the DirecTV Classic. Pacific is 3-2 this season against WCC teams.